Lady Cicely Neville

Published2nd August 2015

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Cicely (or Cecily)
Neville, was one of the vast brood of children of Ralph Neville, Earl of
Westmorland, by his second wife, Joan, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of
Lancaster. Cicely was born and brought up in the great Neville stronghold of
Raby Castle, Durham. Considered exceptionally good-looking, although no
portraits survive, she was referred to as the ‘Rose of Raby’.

At the age of
fourteen Cicely was married to her father’s ward, Richard, Duke of York. This
was a very prestigious match, as the Duke, although his father had been
executed for treason, was close to the throne. Cicely and York had at least
thirteen children during the period 1439 – 1455, of whom seven lived
beyond infancy.

During the
minority of Henry VI, York received various offices. In 1436, he was appointed
as Lieutenant or Governor of Normandy, which gave him responsibility for the
English kingdom in France, which was steadily declining in the face of French
resurgence. Cicely and York resided in Rouen for several years (during two terms
of appointment), during which time there was a breach with the King’s cousin,
John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset.

The war in France
now appeared unwinnable, particularly in the face of Henry VI’s patent
inability and disinclination to wage war as his father had done. A truce was
agreed that brought a niece of the French King, Marguerite of Anjou, to England
as Queen.

On their return to
England, York was not included in the King’s Council, and he resented the
prominence of Somerset and the Duke of Suffolk, with whose policies of peace
towards France he was at odds. Henry VI’s inability to govern effectively led
to increasing unrest across the country, and resentment of his Queen and his
chief ministers. In a kind of exile from the centre of power, York was posted
to Ireland, as Lieutenant, and Cicely accompanied him.

The political
situation deteriorated, and the quarrel between York and Somerset began to
spill over into factional dispute. In 1451, York demanded that he be recognised
as Henry VI’s heir – at that point, Henry’s marriage was childless, and none of
his Lancastrian uncles had produced children. Cicely could look forward to
being a queen one day. But
disappointment was in store for them when Queen Marguerite bore a son in 1453.

Henry VI, however,
had suffered a severe mental break-down and York was appointed as Lord
Protector. York appointed Cicely’s brother, the Earl of Salisbury, and her
nephew, the Earl of Warwick, to high office. This brought one branch of her
powerful Neville family into supporting York against Somerset (supported by the
Nevilles’ rivals, the Percy family), who was sent to the Tower.

With the recovery
of Henry VI, York was out of office and Somerset back in. York and his
supporters raised an army, and the factional disputes degenerated into a series
of battles, known as the Wars of the Roses.

During the Wars,
Cicely, like most women, saw her family divided between Lancaster and York as
siblings and children were forced to choose between relatives. In 1460, York was killed at the Battle of
Wakefield, along with Cicely’s second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, and her
brother, Salisbury. The fight, however, was carried on when Cicely’s oldest
son, Edward, Earl of March, won the bloody Battle of Towton in 1461, and successfully
claimed the crown.

For a short period, Cicely was the first lady of the land, until she received the unwelcome news that Edward had secretly married a Lancastrian widow, Elizabeth Woodville, whose family was almost as numerous and greedy as the Nevilles.

As the first phase
of the Wars of the Roses had emerged out of rivalry between York and the
Nevilles, against Somerset and the Percies, so the second phase was seeded by
the struggle for power between Cicely’s nephew, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick,
and the Woodvilles.

Warwick and
Cicely’s third son, George of Clarence, married to Warwick’s daughter, rebelled
against Edward, and reinstated Henry VI. Clarence, realising that since his
sister-in-law, Anne, was married to Henry VI’s son, Warwick was not likely to
support his own claims, defected back to his brother’s side and was forgiven.

Eventually, the Lancastrians were routed at the Battle of Tewkesbury but quarrels continued – Clarence and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, fell out about the Warwick inheritance. Edward IV’s support for his wife’s family, as a counterbalance, was not popular. Eventually, Clarence went too far, and Cicely had the grief of knowing that her oldest son had signed the death warrant for his brother.

When Edward IV
died at the age of forty, leaving a twelve-year old as heir, the
Neville-Woodville rivalry broke out again. Richard, Duke of Gloucester,
believing (or purporting to believe) that the Queen and her family would oust
him from his powerful role as the King’s Lieutenant in the North, claimed the
Protectorship and summarily executed the Queen’s brother and son by her first
marriage.

Gloucester then
took the throne as Richard III, with Edward V and his brother disappearing in
the Tower of London. Cicely was on good terms with her son, and presumably,
hoped that, after a controversial accession, he would continue the York
dynasty. There is no record as to what she thought about the disappearance of her grandsons.

But, with the loss of his son, Edward of Middleham, and his wife, Anne
Neville, Richard was exposed. The
Yorkists were split between those who had accepted his accession, and those who
remained loyal to Edward IV’s children, now probably represented by Edward’s
daughter, Elizabeth of York.

In 1485, Henry Tudor, a distant sprig of the Lancastrian tree, mounted a successful invasion,
defeating Richard at
Bosworth. He attempted to reconcile the Yorkists through
marriage to Elizabeth, presenting their children as heirs to both Lancaster and
York.

Cicely herself withdrew
into retirement at Berkhamsted Castle where she lived a life of strict
religious observance and piety. Henry VII gave her new grants of income,
although she does not seem to have attended the court. On her death in 1495,
she gave bequests to both King and Queen, and her great-grandsons, Princes
Arthur and
Henry.

She was buried at
Fotheringhay, beside the husband she had lost thirty-five years before.